The Official TWiT Wiki:Community bulletin board

Welcome to the community bulletin board. This is where you can dicuss technical issues, policies, and operations of this wiki. This page is active with all kinds of discussions, choose a discussion and jump right in! If you're looking for the bulletin board the TWiT Staff uses to make requests of the community it can be found at The TWiT Bulletin Board.

Rules:

Always be civil and use good judgment.

This is not the place for off-topic forums, this is for wiki issues only.

This is not the place to compain about a specific article, do it on the article's talk page.

Extension Requests

List here MediaWiki extensions you'd like to see installed. Please provide an explanation as to why. --listrophy 14:11, 11 January 2009 (PST)

DynamicPageList lets editors define a set of search criteria to create a user-formatted list. This is useful for the TWiT Wiki because it removes the need to update "... Show Notes" pages. All that's needed to do is create the individual show notes page, assign it the proper category, and DynamicPageList will automatically add it to the overall show notes list. --listrophy 14:11, 11 January 2009 (PST)

Semantic MediaWiki allows editors to add metadata to pages, resulting in the ability to search, sort, and display various groupings of text. OK. That sounded complex. Think of it this way: instead of having a page about TWiT 133, the TWiT 133 pages knows (and can report) who were the panelists, which URLs relate to it, and its date of release. It's DynamicPageList on hyper-steroids. --listrophy

ImageMap allows editors to use images as links using simple code. I find this a useful tool because it allows for images to be linked and when click, lead somewhere, and this will drastically improve the Episode Infobox. --Taylor Karras 05:10, 12 January 2009 (PST)

Facebook Connect The FBConnect extension for MediaWiki replaces the login functionality with Facebook Connect. Are there any plans for implimenting the Facebook Connect Plugin into this Wiki? I think it would be a very nice feature --Hapa 11:30, 22 January 2009 (PST)

SVG support

Proposal: Namespace aliases

I would like to propose that we create aliases for the The Official TWiT Wiki: and The Official TWiT Wiki talk: namespaces. Those names are really long and can get tiresome to type. We could use TW: and TWT:, Wiki: and Wiki talk:, or another set if someone can think of a good one. These would be relatively easy to implement using $wgNamespaceAliases. For example, to add TW: and TWT:, the following lines would be added to LocalSettings.php.

Good idea, but we need to entertain more on what the consequences will be. Most wiki's have a long project name, but I don't know if it'll detract search results for this wiki or if it will help. Might I also suggest the use of shortcuts? --Taylor Karras(t•c•s) 16:14, 27 January 2009 (PST)

I approve of this idea, so long as it doesn't interfere with interwiki links (which, as far as I can tell are currently disabled anyway). —listrophy( t | c | Logs: b • d • p • r ) 21:56, 27 January 2009 (PST)

I doubt it would interfere with interwiki links, as tw is the ISO 639-1 code for the Twi language, which I doubt we would ever need to link to, and twt isn't a code for any language (that I could find). -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 23:26, 27 January 2009 (PST)

Both the type of link you're talking about and links to other languages are technically interwiki links. Also, interwiki links to en.wikipedia are enabled (see wikipedia:TWiT.tv). But, even if we were to enable more of them, the two types can coexist – en.wikipedia has several shortcuts, such as WP: for Wikipedia: and WT: for Wikipedia talk:. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 18:51, 28 January 2009 (PST)

I'd like request a new page or section be made by kiwinerd and/or some of the other ODTV gang that is a tutorial on how to capture the TWiT Live stream and record, sync, and render in a YouTube-able format. I think the ODTV concept is awesome but in my conversations with upcoming guests I often encourage them to have a friend capture/record the stream for their own purposes (largely because our workflow makes giving them a copy of our high quality copy of the video, or even a low quality copy, very time intensive). Their purposes and timeline do not always correspond with the ODTV feed, although that feed is often very helpful. Additionally, I think it would be nice if anyone could capture a particular segment for their own archive for whatever reason. So I'd like to have a page to direct guests, listeners and community members to. Thanks! Danegolden 07:26, 4 February 2009 (PST)

There was a little bit of talk about this in the IRC and it looks like this will be taken care of pretty soon. --Steveh 16:56, 6 February 2009 (PST)

Can someone please create this page? After TWiT 185 Leo was talking to Brian Shaler about using wget, so could someone create a list of the steps needed to use that to record the stream? Thanks. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 18:20, 9 March 2009 (PDT)

I've created a page that describes how to capture audio and video using wget. It won't be valid until Leo actually goes live with bitgravity so I'm keeping it under construction until then. Once Leo does the switch over I'll put it on the main page. This page can be viewed at How to Record TWiT. --Steveh 17:30, 1 April 2009 (PDT)

Thanks Steveh. I just tried it out on twit.am and it worked great. The only thing is on Windows you press ctrl-c. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 09:46, 2 April 2009 (PDT)

Figures. People told me in the chat that Ctrl+Z was the SIGINT command on the Windows command line. Ctrl-C is the SIGINT command on Unix systems as well so I'll just change it to that for everything. --Steveh 13:37, 2 April 2009 (PDT)

iTunes Links

I'd love to have a wiki page dedicated simply to getting the direct links to each show on iTunes, as well as having a the same link from the main page of each show (right below RSS). This could be considered redundant but isn't really. It's easy to find the iTunes URL for anything by doing a right-click on the album art in iTunes, but here they are:

How To Be A Guest On TWiT

Could someone create a stub page for me on "How to be a guest on TWiT Live or TWiT.tv." This will include the checklist I go through with guests who haven't been on the show before, and include Skype audio and video tests, lighting tips, chat room tips, and more. This will also help callers for when Leo does more call-ins. Danegolden 08:02, 12 February 2009 (PST)

Problem with link from main page

This page is linked to from the home page, following the "Show Notes" link:
http://wiki.twit.tv/wiki/List_of_show_notes_pages. But at least some of the show notes pages linked from this page are not the same as those that link from the individual shows. They are incomplete and an old format. They should link to the pages that come from the individual shows. Danegolden 21:47, 18 February 2009 (PST)

Thanks. This works great now. Leo took link off home page, maybe it's OK to put back on?Danegolden 17:16, 23 February 2009 (PST)

Transcripts

Transcripts Page: Could someone please create a naming convention and template for complete episode transcripts? Should link to episode URL on TWiT.tv as well as to that episode's wiki page. We're in talks with PodsInPrint to have them create and post a complete transcript of each episode of TWiT, but could expand to be more shows. Danegolden 19:40, 16 February 2009 (PST)

I have created a preload template for transcripts at {{Preload transcript}}. Feel free to work on the format of this template. I also added a link in {{Infobox Episode}} to the appropriate transcript page. This link follows the pattern of "Netcast Episode_number/Transcript", which is the best naming convention I can think of. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 19:50, 23 February 2009 (PST)

A while back there was a discussion about splitting the Daily Giz Wiz Show Notes page into several pieces due the the tremendous size of the page (at the time I'm writing this it's at 204,273 bytes. There were two proposals at the time:

Ludwik, the operator of the GizWizSearchBot, mentioned that it is easier to implement splitting by year. Regardless of which method we decide to use, we can create a master list of the episodes by transcluding the pages. With that plan, I'm thinking that the overall page structure would be as follows (I'm using the split-by-year method as an example, but the idea would be the same for splitting by episode number):

I agree that the show notes need to be split up someway, that looks like a good idea to me. I don't know how many shows are typically done per year, but it doesn't seem like there would be too many shows on one page with that method. Sharp65 17:41, 26 March 2009 (PDT)

Well the Giz Wiz started February 20, 2006 and episode #770 was on February 20, 2009, so that's about 256 episodes per year, or 2.5x the number of shows per page using the split-by-year method compared to the split-by-year method. Each episode is about 220-230 bytes in size. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 18:31, 26 March 2009 (PDT)

This will allow us to transclude the contents of all the pages onto Daily Giz Wiz Show Notes for a gigantic master list (which will be easier to edit due to the smaller sub pages. The link in the heading will let people get to that specific subpage. Feel free to ask questions if you have any. -- Imperator3733(talk | contribs | sysop | Logs: b • d • p • r) 14:18, 13 April 2009 (PDT)

I implemented the split and provided a very basic new Daily Giz Wiz Show Notes page. I hope people will make improvements to it and make it more clear and visually pleasing. One important information: The bot will automatically create and update list for the current year, but it won't ever touch the main Daily Giz Wiz Show Notes page, so you can change it as much as you want. Ludwik 13:57, 21 April 2009 (PDT)

iTunes Tips

Is it just me or would it be appropriate to have a couple of pages on how to properly use iTunes to download or subscribe to individual or all TWiT shows, and certain tricks with the settings to get it to sync better or faster/automatic or manually? There's got to be a number of really great tips in this community, and I think it helps to be able to point folks to a single place. Thanks! Danegolden 22:27, 13 April 2009 (PDT)

Please help maintain "FAQ Live!" section

A little while ago when Qs in the #twitlive channel were flowing fast and furious about the Axia audio installation, I created this new section on the FAQ page, called "FAQ Live!"

The intent is that the answers to "hot topics" of the moment in IRC, once answered, can be put there, organized by date, etc. Then we can just point to the FAQ. For example, as TWiT approaches, people are always asking "who's going to be on TWiT?" Leo does announce this and at that time one of us could update the FAQ page.

Then, maybe, the link to the FAQ can go into the topic of #twitlive.

Naturally this will take some ongoing effort if it is to be useful. I can't do it all myself. Please help! Jeh 00:33, 31 August 2009 (PDT)

My thought re. putting it at the top of the FAQ page is: the people we point to the "FAQ live" will thereby learn about the FAQ page in general, and might learn something else they don't know. Jeh 19:55, 2 September 2009 (PDT)

Help with Staff pages

If anyone would like to help me out by change the staff page into individual pages for each staff member, I would appreciate it. Leo's staff page would be the same as his host page. Thanks! Danegolden 18:59, 26 September 2009 (PDT)

I have started by copying text from Staff as a starting point for the individual staff pages. Others can add to and edit these. Also see Talk:Staff --Bryn 02:21, 27 September 2009 (PDT)

Separate Current shows from archived shows

When searching for a specific show from the wiki homepage you have to browse through all past shows. Would it be possible to have a "Current Netcasts" and an "Archived Netcasts" section on the homepage?

State of the Wiki address

Okay. I know it's been a long time but I have recently come across this wiki again and I find it to be in a state of disrepair; there's not much creation of the shownotes and transcripts that used to be in the past and the community of it compared to other TWiT properties has become non-existant. For an empire like TWiT, this is unforgivable. I remember back in 2008 when there was an actual community willing to edit this wiki for the greater good of the network; ah yes, pages were being put up swiftly, they were getting updated with relevant information, everybody wanted to be a part of it. Now it's just a sespool of users signing up massively and barely any edits at all, if there are users joining up, why don't they contribute to the wiki?

We need to actively reengage the community and make those editors proud that they're contributing to a part of the TWiT community, we need motivators; projects to organize the transscripting and show notes; awards to give for a job well done and most importantly, we need a campaign to bring back those old-school users who used to meant something, those editors who's edits provided a vital part of the wiki. It may be hard to get this wiki back up to the standards of which it was once known for but this wiki is supposed to be a vital part of the community and TWiT is less effective without it's wiki.

I'd like to take the time to apologize for my behavior in 2008. I know it's been a long time but I feel like my behavior wasn't conductive to the wiki at hand and at times, even seems disruptive. I've taken steps to assure that this never happens again by learning from past mistakes, understanding to not do them again and just come out as a different person and even though I still make mistakes time to time, I am devoted to serving the community at hand, not myself, not my ego but you and it's time to bring this wiki back from the grave; case in point, no more mass users joining than doing nothing, more editing, more organization and if possible, essential upgrades to the wiki that'll bring it up to code.

I know this has been short but seriously, how long has it been since the wiki gotten some real care. I hope that by starting the revolution I can bring the wiki back to it's glory days; this place needs to exist for users to edit show notes, for transcripts to be posted, for information to be found easily, for detailed information relating to TWiT to exist. I hope that everybody who reads this can relate and join up in the mission to fix up this wiki. Now who's with TWiT?

Also ignore the sig and username, it's outdated. Need to get a bureaucrat to unlock my sig and to change my user name for me. Taylor Karras(t•c•s) 04:08, 2 July 2013 (PDT)